Enchanting Lisa tries first dirt stakes in Chilukki

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On the same day trainer Charlie LoPresti had hoped to run two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, before a cannon bone injury sent the horse to the sidelines, he will be leading over Wise Dan’s little half-sister, Enchanting Lisa, to run in the Grade 2, $200,000 Chilukki Stakes Saturday at Churchill Downs.

“If she would win on the day Wise Dan would have run, it would ease some of the pain for everyone,” LoPresti said. “You know I shouldn’t say ease the pain because Wise Dan has done so much. He doesn’t have to do any more for us.”

Still, if she could pull off a victory in a race scheduled 15 minutes before Wise Dan would have run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, it would take away some of the sting of disappointment for him, his staff, and Morton Fink, who owns the whole family.

Ten fillies are entered in the mile Chilukki, and Enchanting Lisa, coming off a first-level allowance win, is a 10-1 outsider in a field that includes the graded stakes winners Spring in the Air, My Happy Face, Molly Morgan, and My Option.

A 4-year-old by War Chant out of broodmare of the year Lisa Danielle, Enchanting Lisa still could please her connections with something a little short of a win. With her pedigree – also being half-sister to the multiple stakes winner Successful Dan – her residual broodmare value would increase exponentially even with a second or third, which would earn her a graded stakes placing.

A winner of 2 of 8 starts and $108,904, she has raced just once previously in a stakes race, running eighth in the Mint Julep at Churchill on turf in June. The Chilukki marks her first start in a dirt stakes race.

Key contenders

Spring in the Air (Last 3 Beyers: 87-81-88)

Winner of the Grade 1 Alcibiades on Polytrack in 2012, she tops the field with a $913,032 bankroll, but she largely is an unknown commodity racing on dirt, having made just one prior start on it, a fifth-place finish, beaten 12 3/4 lengths by Beholder in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. All of her other starts have been on synthetic or turf.

My Happy Face (Last 3 Beyers: 78-80-90)

While most horses headed west this week, she travelled east to Kentucky from her Southern California base. A skilled performer at 2 and 3 – winning the Grade 3 Tempted as a juvenile and running third, beaten a neck, in the Grade 1 Test – she hasn’t been as sharp this year at 4 with four third-place finishes.

Molly Morgan (Last 3 Beyers: 86-87-90)

She has the potential to move forward with the return to Churchill Downs, where she ran her best races in the spring meet, finishing second in the Grade 1 La Troienne and winning the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis; comes off a third-place finish at Keeneland behind Breeders’ Cup Distaff entrant Don’t Tell Sophia.

My Option (Last 3 Beyers: 83-85-80)

She is cut back to one turn, conditions under which she excels. She won the Grade 3 Chicago Handicap going seven-eighths at Arlington in June, though that race came on Polytrack, on which she has run faster than she has on dirt.